The carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle and its effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 100 million years

TLDR

A steady‑state computer model was constructed to quantify CO₂ fluxes between the atmosphere and ocean, incorporating continental weathering of calcite, dolomite, and silicates, biogenic CaCO₃ removal, Mg removal via volcanic‑seawater reactions, and subduction‑related decarbonation, and then perturbing these fluxes to reflect 100‑million‑year changes. The model shows atmospheric CO₂ is highly sensitive to seafloor spreading rate and continental area, predicts several‑fold higher Cretaceous CO₂ and corresponding paleotemperatures that agree with independent data, indicating plate tectonics as a major climate driver.

Abstract

A computer model has been constructed that considers the effects on the CO/sub 2/ level of the atmosphere, and the Ca, Mg, and HCO/sub 3/ levels of the ocean, of the following processes: weathering on the continents of calcite, dolomite, and calcium-and-magnesium-containing silicates; biogenic precipitation and removal of CaCO/sub 3/ from the ocean; removal of Mg from the ocean via volcanic-seawater reaction; and the metamorphic-magmatic decarbonation of calcite and dolomite (and resulting CO/sub 2/ degassing) as a consequence of plate subduction. Assuming steady state, values for fluxes to and from the atmosphere and oceans are first derived for the modern ocean-atmosphere system. Then the consequences of perturbing steady state are examined by deriving rate expressions for all transfer reactions. These rate expressions are constructed so as to reflect changes over the past 100 my. Results indicate that the CO/sub 2/ content of the atmosphere is highly sensitive to changes in seafloor spreading rate and continental land area, and, to a much lesser extent, to changes in the relative masses of calcite and dolomite. Consideration of a number of alternative seafloor spreading rate formulations shows that in all cases a several-fold higher CO/sub 2/ level for the Cretaceous atmosphere (65-100 mymore » BP) is obtained via the model. Assuming that CO/sub 2/ level and surface air temperature are positively correlated via an atmospheric greenhouse model, they authors predict Cretaceous paleotemperatures which are in rough general agreement with independent published data. Consequently, their results point to plate tectonics, as it affects both metamorphic-magmatic decarbonation and changes in continental land area, as a major control of world climate.« less